Before I write about the Bicol trip, I’d like to share these videos first.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton.

Weezer - Pork and Beans

It’s like all the time I wasted on youtube was for this video to make sense.
I’m trying a ‘Pork and Beans’ approach to blogging. :)

Today was “talk-down-to-us” day, from our statistics lesson in commed to the formation activity we had this afternoon. That’s a total of 6 hours of being presented basic statistics and basic Catholic/Christian/Lasallian concepts as if we were encountering them for the first time. We we’re actually asked to collectively read a piece called “You’re Special” (…you’re special..you’re rare… and like anything rare you have value…). And while I actually agree with the sentiment, the way it was presented to us was downright insulting (condescending! condescending! condescending!). Anyway, I’ll cut this rant here. I don’t want to have the headache I slept off to recur.

Just for Tonight

I’ve been busy this past week with our exams (as usual) and with the production and solidarity committees for the college’s yearly interbatch talent competition (JFT). Aika’s and my ideas were hits that night. A lot of people loved the batch shirt we designed. Even the other batches and doctors wanted to know how they could get one. Our other idea was to incorporate several live action Super Mario scenes (inspired by this) and to incorporate Kasou Taisho, the show behind this and this and this, on our play/production. My classmates choreographed several fight scenes using the fake special effects concept. We had tons of technical difficulties but we were the only batch who got the whole room laughing.

The first years’ play run very smoothly. And I loved the third years’ production. It was smart, well-written, well-acted and funny. We knew we’d most probably get last place as most batches do on their second year (due to time constraints). We were prepared to lose the production and the chorale but we expected to win the solidarity (which we did win) and band awards. So when it was announced that our band “lost” by 0.5, a lot of us were disappointed and pissed. Even I was teary-eyed with rage. Nawalan kami ng gana. I personally felt it was disrespectful. Sobrang ibang level ang performance ng band compared sa other batches. The other bands were good but they weren’t good enough to beat our band. My batch had the better singers and the better musicians. They were the best band of the night. Period.

After the results were announced, there was a bit of a lag before the “winners” celebrated. I think everyone knew who deserved to win. This is something I’m not taking back should anyone from the winning batch/band come across this entry. /rant

After that, inuman hanggang umaga.

“The Golden Compass”

Yesterday, I went out to dinner with several of my friends and classmates, most of us not having had a decent meal for the last two days because of JFT. After dinner, 4 of us decided to watch The Golden Compass.

I loved the movie. While I don’t discount the existence of God, I am currently having issues with organized religions and so I agree with some of the movie’s sentiments. By now it’s obvious that I’m not in the mood to elaborate on anything so I’ll just share what my friend told me after the movie: the guy an empty seat away from her was masturbating the entire time. Yuck!! I told her he probably got off of the bears. Yep, it was definitely the bears.

I loved Enchanted. I predicted almost every major plot point from just the poster and the knowledge that it was going to be a parody of sorts, but I enjoyed it anyway because it was fun, campy, funny and waffy. As a kid who grew up watching Disney films on an almost daily basis, I loved the references made throughout the movie.

Disney has long been criticized for their passive princesses with their waiting-for-my-prince-to-come bullshit mentality. Although the female leads have been improving (Belle, Megara, Mulan, etc), this I think is the first time Disney has directly addressed the criticisms. Enchanted redeemed Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, the worst princesses, through Giselle and established that naivety and the propensity to burst into song are not mutually exclusive with empowerment. Though the way Giselle did it was kind of trite, Disney gets points for the effort.

The upcoming movie featuring a black princess is further proof of Disney’s evolution. I wonder though, how many more years would it take for them to lose the homophobia?

Anyway, I felt like drawing myself Disney style (vainvainvain). But what I came up with wasn’t very Disney-ish at all. And it looked like me as much as Idina Menzel looked like her Disney self, which is not by a long shot. Marami ring mali, but whatever, sayang naman sa effort so I’ll post it anyway:

The movie I’m REALLY excited about is the adaptation of The Kite Runner. I will watch it come finals or high water.